To FujiX100S or Not to FujiX100S – An Italian Job

To FujiX100S or Not to FujiX100S – An Italian Job

For the last two years myself and my girlfriend have travelled to a few different places around Italy. Not being a seasoned traveller myself and relatively scared of flying (and going in a boat) I really had to push myself. This year we travelled to Genoa, Bologna, Rimini and Venice and I decided to create the blog ‘To FujiX100S or Not to FujiX100S – An Italian Job’.

Last year I travelled with my trusty 5DMkII, Canon 24-70mm & Canon 50mm – whilst I was very pleased with the images that I produced, it was clear that carrying such a weight wasn’t conducive to a relaxing holiday. If only there was a solution to allow me to create the standard of images that I required in a light (er) weight package.

I took the plunge a few months ago and treated myself to the Fuji X100S. I had enough time to work out the best settings for our forthcoming trip to Italy and to answer my challenge to ‘Fuji or Not to Fuji’ and produce the same quality of photography that I do for my clients but also to push the Fuji to see what it could do for me.

Jpeg or RAW?

A further challenge, both to my ability as a Photographer and to the (often heralded) qualities of Fuji’s Jpeg output (have a read of this fantastic article on the Jpeg output click here), was to shoot the entire trip handheld in Jpeg – and to minimise my editing and post production work.

Travelling with the Fuji X100s is awesome, especially after being so used to the bulk of my DSLRs and range of bulky lenses. It’s fairly lightweight, has a range of great conversion lenses, and it looks kind of cool and retro… no one really takes any notice of you with the Fuji. Wielding a hefty DSLR in the middle of St. Marks Square makes you something of a marked man, let alone the concern of actually hitting someone as you wield 4kgs of lens and camera!

Light

Every photographer knows that light can make or break your photo; of course travelling around Italy I was looking forward to some brilliant sunshine, sunsets, the blue hour… oh it will be awesome. Actually when travelling you don’t have a choice not to shoot in imperfect light or ask someone on the street if they can come back at sunset so you can recreate that street photographer’s dream moment in the perfect light… this meant I really had to do a lot of exposure compensation for different images, sometimes adjusting for every shot as I walked from shade to sun and back again, which is easy using the simple exposure dial of the FujiX100S.

Overall Conclusion

I am so pleased with the images that I produced using my FujiX100S on this trip. Having the wide angle conversion was absolutely awesome and just gave me that bit extra when I needed it. I have to thank my friend Simon Burgess for letting me take his conversion lens out of the country with me. You must check out his work too.

So, To FujiX100S or Not to FujiX100S – An Italian Job, for me definitely it’s the fuji when I’m travelling now – it produces the goods, is easy to carry and lightweight. It also looks really cool!!!

My Fuji X100S:

Garez case black

Shutter button

Screen protector

Wide angle conversion – no filter.

Thank you so much for reading. Please do not be afraid to get in touch or share this Blog with your friends – to find out more about me you can click here or if you want to see more of my work, please visit my galleries here.

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Surrey Wedding Photographer

Hi I'm Michael, a surrey wedding photographer, working in and around London and the South East. I have a documentary style approach to photographing weddings, and love to provide a collection of images with that creative edge!
I am based in Kingston Upon Thames, but travel all over for weddings and client meetings, so do get in touch if you'd like to arrange to meet up. I have lots of lovely sample albums for you to see and we can talk through what you're looking for in a photographer